Thursday, April 30, 2015

Mushroom King and Mushroom Men: Bones II Figures

This week I also finished up the Mushroom King and Mushroom Men from the Bones II Expansion Set I. I decided to paint them all at one time, since they all were getting the exact same paint scheme.
I prepped the figures in the usual way; soaking them in a dish of water with a couple drops of dish- soap added, then giving them a light scrub with a soft toothbrush, and then rinsing and drying them. I then glued the figures to black-primed fender washers with Aleene's Tacky glue; 1.5" for the King, 1.25" for the middle-sized mushroom, and 1" for the smallest. When the glue was dry, I glued the figures to a tongue depressor with a couple drops each of the Elmer's glue.

I began by painting the entire bodies of the figures with plain White. Next, I painted the caps with GW "Blood Red". I then painted the small shelf fungus growing down their sides with Apple Barrel "Apple Parchment".

I then went back to the White, and painted the small dots on their caps. On the King, I painted his staff with Americana "Mississippi Mud". I also painted the stems of the mushrooms growing on his head, and the ones growing on his staff, with Americana "Buttermilk". I painted the caps of the mushrooms growing on the King's head with Apple Barrel "Yellow". The more granular growth growing on his cap I painted with Apple Barrel "Burnt Sienna". I then painted some of the mushroom caps on his staff with Accent "Mustard Seed", and others with Americana "Tangerine". I painted the small cluster mushrooms on the staff with Americana "Reindeer Moss Green".

After the paint had time to dry, I gave all the figures a head to toe wash with GW "Agrax Earthshade" wash using a wet brush.

When the wash was dry, I went back and carefully drybrushed the bodies of the mushrooms, avoiding as best I could the red caps, and the shelf fungus on their backs. I then took a regular brush and did further highlights where needed, and highlighted the white dots on the caps. I followed this with highlighting the caps themselves with the base "Blood Red". I then used all the base colors I had used on the smaller mushroom caps to highlight them on the King's head and staff. Next, I mixed a little of the "Yellow" and "Burnt Sienna" and used this mix to lightly drybrush the granular growth on the King's cap. At this point I also realized that one of the things on the King's cap was a snail shell (I think!), so I painted it with Americana "Zinc" and then drybrushed it with Duncan "Slate Grey".
Continuing, I did highlights on the staff itself with the base "Mississippi Mud", and the shelf mushrooms on their backs with the base "Apple Parchment". I finished off with adding tiny dots, using Apple Barrel "Apple Scotch Blue", to the mushrooms I had painted with the "Mustard Seed" on the Kings staff ; and then lastly, giving each mushroom a set of beady Black eyes. I painted the figures' white integral bases with Ceramcoat "Walnut"
I let the figures sit all day, and that evening I gave them a coat of Ceramcoat "Matte Varnish". The next morning I flocked the bases, and that afternoon I gave the figures a coat of Testor's "Dullcote" spray varnish.

I'm very pleased with how these little fellows turned out. They certainly are something completely different! :)

I do not know the name for this musroom in English but both the French and German one link it to flies...Also I know that in Eastern Canada the Shamans were smoking them to get visions. Somehow I see them as a stoner specie :))

Grey work quick question… I see some pieces that look identical to each other but are different prices. For example these mushroom men are cheaper than the king alone, but it appears as though they are the same piece. Do you know if it is a metal difference. I realize you may not know but I appreciate your time regardless. Great work again.

Dan- Thank you for the kind comments regarding my work! Usually when you see two versions of a Reaper figure, and one is cheaper, it is because the cheaper version is made from Reaper's pvc plastic material, called "Bones". So in the your case, the set of three mushroom men shown in the Reaper online store are plastic, and the more expensive stand-alone mushroom king figure shown is metal. You can usually tell because all the Bones plastic figures pictured usually have a blue background color. If you want to be sure, just look at the keywords under the picture on the figure's listing, and it will say "Bones" if it is plastic. All the figures I paint and show on this blog are the white plastic Bones versions.

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About Me

I've been a gamer since my high school days in the 70's. I'm married to Jennifer, and reside in Maryland. I am co-author, along with Buck Surdu, of "GASLIGHT" and several of its supplements, and "Look, Sarge, No Charts: WWII", and "LSNC: ACW". I also wrote the "Thunder & Plunder"; half of our Pirate rules, "Blood & Swash"
I am a founding member of the HAWKs wargames club.